Business News Roundup, Oct. 2

General Electric ousted its CEO, took a $23 billion charge and said it would fall short of profit forecasts this year, further signs that the century-old industrial conglomerate is struggling to turn around its vastly shrunken business.

H. Lawrence Culp Jr. will take over immediately as chairman and CEO from John Flannery, who had been on the job for just over a year. Flannery began a restructuring of GE in August 2017, when he replaced Jeffrey Immelt, whose efforts to create a higher-tech version of GE proved unsuccessful.

However, in Flannery’s short time, GE’s value has dipped below $100 billion and shares are down more than 35 percent this year, following a 45 percent decline in 2017.

The company was booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average this summer and, last month, shares tumbled to a nine-year low after revealing a flaw in its marquee gas turbines, which caused the metal blades to weaken and forced the shutdown of a pair of power plants where they were in use.

GE warned Monday that it will miss its profit forecasts this year and it’s taking a $23 billion charge related to its power business.

Labor

Long Beach, L.A. port strike

Truck drivers and warehouse workers who serve the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach began striking Monday morning in front of warehouses serving the ports, protesting the classification of drivers as independent contractors.

The strike has had no effect so far on cargo flow, said Rachel Campbell, spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles.

The strike, which is expected to last through Wednesday, is the 16th by the port truck drivers in the past five years. The union contends that the truck drivers have been wrongly classified as independent contractors, rather than employees, and are not paid the wages they are owed.

Earnings

Stitch Fix beats profit forecast

Stitch Fix Inc. on Monday reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $18.2 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

The San Francisco company said it had a profit of 18 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were 17 cents per share. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 4 cents per share.

The online clothing styling service posted revenue of $318.3 million in the period, which did not meet Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $318.9 million. Stitch Fix shares have increased 73 percent since the beginning of the year.